Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 499

As the burst of light obscured his vision, Lenok realized that the sensation in his left arm was gradually fading.

Along with the strange sense of losing his five senses, his ability to perceive magic twisted and transformed into something else.

Chiiiik…!!

From Lenok’s elbow down to his fingertips, hundreds of unknown characters began to be densely engraved on the red-glowing skin.

The other observers also stared blankly at Lenok’s changed arm.

“What is this…?”

“What’s going on? What happened?”

“The form has changed…? No, the shape and length haven’t changed. Then…”

“Is it the concept of combining attributes? Considering the burning form, it’s a somewhat reasonable result.”

“……”

Lenok ignored the observers’ words and quietly raised his other hand to touch his left arm.

The appearance of the unknown characters engraved on his skin. There was no special power or abnormality felt on the surface.

Only a faint, irritating sensation, as if a foreign substance was stuck on his arm.

Lenok stared silently at his arm for a long time, then discovered countless unknown scars etched into his skin.

Scars that were not originally on Lenok’s body, scars that seemed to have been engraved in an impossible battle.

Even though it was clear that this arm was Lenok’s, what did it mean that a transformed arm with scars had appeared?

Jijik, jijijik…!!

At the same time, faint noise began to crackle between his arm.

This was dangerous. An intense sense of déjà vu seemed to declare that.

“…I see.”

Lenok realized what that meant and immediately released the manifestation-imitating spirit body.

Whoooong!!

With a strange whirring sound, the spell was undone, and the spirit body that had fallen from Lenok’s body turned into a handful of dust and vanished.

“Was that… a new power gained through the super fusion spell?”

Geo asked.

His usually calm expression was slightly surprised by what had just happened.

“No, more than that, you succeeded in fusing with a manifestation just by hearing the principle and magic flow…?”

“To be precise, it wasn’t a success.”

Lenok said.

“If you have to say, it was half a failure… Maybe even if I try the same thing next time, the result will be completely different.”

“…What does that mean?”

“……”

Lenok didn’t answer any further.

To explain that fact clearly, he would have to start by explaining the meaning of his magnetic field. [A concept related to his unique magical abilities].

Rather than that, he should focus on the fact that the idea Lenok had just tried was more unsettling than he had thought.

Overlapping of existence through the principle of fusion. What results could Lenok gain in that process?

Now that he had confirmed the possibility, all that remained was to specify the conditions.

Lenok stared blankly at the spirit body disappearing into the void and said,

“It seems I need to learn how to properly create a manifestation.”

* * *

Kiiiik…!!

“Vital signs lost. No magic reaction.”

“It’s estimated that more than six hours have passed since rigor mortis ended. It’s too late to hope for luck.”

“The structure of the tissue cells themselves has completely collapsed. It appears to have been exposed to a firepower strong enough to break the bonds at the genetic level.”

In a cold hospital room illuminated by pale light.

The Second Apostle listened carefully to the stories the medical staff were telling him, his eyes closed.

A pure white cloth covered Amrita’s corpse lying on the bed.

They extracted a sample of the corpse that had escaped through the gap and began their investigation.

After the medical staff’s findings were complete, it was the turn of the high-ranking priests within the Order. [A religious organization].

“The magic circuit has burst. It’s a trace of being submerged in an output that even an apostle’s body couldn’t withstand.”

“Looking at the speed of cell regeneration in the body, it’s clear that she fully enjoyed her power after transforming into her true form.”

“It’s rejecting and blocking the magic itself that we’re injecting for the investigation.”

“The opponent probably spent a long time taking follow-up measures. It’s impossible to be this precise without that.”

“A long time…”

The Second Apostle muttered and slowly opened his eyes.

He thought he had arrived ‘just in time’ right after the battle, when Izel and Amrita had just died.

But in fact, had a lot more time passed than that?

“…No, that can’t be.”

The Second Apostle shook his head slowly, reflecting on his internal sense of time.

“It’s more likely that the sorcerer was that skilled.”

“Th-then, there’s nothing we can do…”

“Keep going. I want to hear more.”

The priests, watching the Second Apostle’s mood, began to give their opinions one by one as they thoroughly examined Amrita’s corpse.

“…Amazing. Even though some time has passed since she died, the tissue cells in her body are regenerating little by little.”

“It must be a miraculous result of the great god’s will. However, the regeneration speed itself is…”

“Yes, each regenerating area is collapsing due to a chain of incineration and destruction.”

“It’s an extremely powerful and vicious spell. Even within the Order, this level is only possible with the aftermath of a forbidden weapon…”

The Second Apostle, who had been listening quietly, smiled faintly.

“Magic comparable to a forbidden weapon… So it was that level.”

“…Apostle?”

The Apostle, naturally ignoring the other priests’ words, asked.

“No, it’s nothing. What’s the status of the Apostle’s spell?”

“Hmm…”

“Th-that is…”

The priests suddenly shut their mouths and began to watch the man’s mood.

“W-we tried to check that first, but it’s not easy to even approach it.”

“We’re constantly trying, but we can’t get a grasp of it…”

The Second Apostle, understanding the meaning, stood in front of Amrita’s corpse.

The moment he grabbed Amrita’s burnt wrist and infused his will,

Kiriirik!!!

A barrier that rejected his will burst out with an unknown, heterogeneous spark.

The fragments of the barrier formed countless circular arrays in the air and began to intertwine endlessly.

It transformed into a complex firewall-like shape, and the light seeped back into Amrita’s corpse.

The priests, having confirmed the existence of the array, shrank back with blank expressions, and the Second Apostle’s eyes flashed sharply.

“Wh-what on earth is this…”

“It’s a spell I’ve never seen before. How can this kind of security magic exist…”

However, the Second Apostle stared intently at the disappearing array until the very end, then spat out a single word.

“It’s a Jintun barrier technique.”

“Yes?”

“The individual components that make up the barrier are completely different, but the overall magic array and rotation speed pattern are similar to those of the Hanghasa Labyrinth.”

“…D-did you see that with your naked eye and figure it out?”

Ignoring the horrified priests’ reactions, the Apostle rested his chin.

“It’s an encryption barrier that only borrows the structure of the barrier technique, but the contents are completely different…”

In the Apostle’s transcendent memory, he quickly compared only the closest information and patterns, calculating how to unravel it.

“It’s a method of putting an encryption array into the spell itself to prohibit output. It’s similar to the way information is handled in the cyber space of the Machine City, but the patterns are very different.”

The Apostle, who had been muttering for a while, shook his head as if there was nothing he could do.

“It’ll be difficult to find the decryption code unless we create a comparison group through a new apostle.”

“Th-that’s…”

“Are you saying that Amrita’s scale spell is sealed…!!”

There was no one among the high-ranking priests gathered here who did not fully understand the meaning.

One of the Apostle’s spells, which had a strategically significant value within the Order, was being sealed.

How serious was it that one of the Order’s weapons, which boasted overwhelming versatility among the Apostle’s spells along with [Kamrodal’s Doll], was being tied up?

However, the Second Apostle, fully understanding that, only stroked his chin and smiled.

“Well, it doesn’t matter for the time being, does it? I’m glad we’ve made a truce with the Order of Mages.”

“There will be great losses in the process of transporting the forces tied up at the front…!!”

“Missionaries across the continent are urging the headquarters for a quick solution. If we don’t solve this…!!”

Despite the desperate words of the priests, the Second Apostle only quietly turned his back.

“You guys take care of that part.”

“Apostle…!!”

Leaving behind the voices calling him desperately, the man walked through the grand sanctuary of the Pantheon. [The main temple of the Order].

He passed through the [Great Saint’s Completion] barrier formation, which was surrounded by thousands and tens of thousands of layers, and headed to the deepest part of the Pantheon.

A mystical place where only five people could enter, even in the magnificent and majestic headquarters.

The sanctuary, created by pouring all the Order’s power and capital, was neither splendid nor majestic.

On a small patch of grass where time seemed to have stopped.

A vast and thin veil swaying between the grass, quietly fluttering as if to hide something.

A white-haired woman kneeling in front of the veil, which was engraved with the Order’s golden emblem, with her hands clasped together as if in prayer.

The Apostle stopped behind the woman and said quietly.

“Izel is gone, Seina. The Apostle’s spell is sealed.”

“…Is that so?”

“In the end, everything went as you said. Are you satisfied now?”

The Apostle, unable to withstand the gap between his body and mind, eventually went mad, but the priestess did not last long either.

Most of the priestesses had short lives, and only two priestesses remained by the side of the head of the Order until the end.

And just now, one of those two had left their side.

The Apostle, who had been quietly staring beyond the veil, slowly knelt down like her and lowered his head, saying,

“I’ll make a place for the Third Apostle soon. He wants a last moment he can accept.”

“…Hughes, you mean that child.”

“Please don’t make the same choice as Izel. You know that, right?”

“……”

Seina did not answer. She only slightly raised her head and looked beyond the veil.

As if swaying in a wind that did not blow, the end of the veil fluttered, slightly revealing the scenery beyond the hidden grass.

The appearance of something that looked like a small chair or a shabby coffin.

The two only silently kept that image in their gaze.

The god who had left without a promise, with no guarantee of when he would return.

* * *

Order’s Far East Branch. The land running on the sea.

Twilight, as the setting sun sank below the sea.

Lenok sat on the top of the giant crystal palace’s spire, quietly facing away from the sunset.

His sunken gaze seemed to be pondering something, only looking at an object placed in the corner of the spire.

“You were here.”

A bronze-skinned shaman with a long pipe in his mouth walked up the stairs.

“Why are you moping around in a place like this?”

Grisha chuckled and leaned against a pillar of the spire, a little distance from Lenok.

“I have something to think about.”

“Were you looking at that?”

Grisha pointed to the object Lenok had been looking at just now.

The mirror that had been in the secret room where Amrita had been hiding. It was said to be an object that reflected the same being as oneself through the existence projection rate.

Grisha looked at the mirror with interest and asked Lenok.

“What do you see?”

“Nothing.”

Lenok replied with a blank face.

“I don’t see anything anymore.”

“……”

After all the incidents were over, Lenok found the mirror that had been placed underground again, but nothing but Lenok was reflected in the mirror anymore.

It had only shown a glimpse of the scenery Lenok had desired through a single coincidence. Was it a sign that it would not allow anything more?

“What do you see?”

“A princess.”

Grisha chuckled.

“I see a princess who used to rule like a god in the jungle.”

“……”

“I’ve never forgotten it, but even looking at it again, it’s still pathetic.”

She muttered, staring blankly at the scenery beyond the mirror.

“If I had realized it sooner, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time…”

A mirror that reflects the same person through the existence projection rate.

Unlike Lenok, were other people seeing themselves in different timelines?

It was impossible to know which period of her past Grisha was facing, but it was possible to guess that the memory was not very pleasant for her.

“What about Lapis?”

“She’s probably passed out by now.”

Grisha said calmly.

“She used the lighthouse keeper’s power too much, so she’s quite exhausted. It’ll be difficult for her to appear in public for a while.”

Leppard and Pio opened the island’s great barrier through the control code Lenok had given them and contacted Lapis to request support.

As soon as Lapis heard the request, she sent Grisha, Geo, and Liza.

What made that possible was the large-scale spatial transfer that utilized the lighthouse keeper’s power, which had been expanded while building the second lighthouse, and the talisman magic of the armored ship to the extreme.

The lighthouse keeper’s power to leap through space by switching the phases of seeing and existing, and the 8th level talisman magic that intervenes in space-time.

Spatial transfer that could only be used within the area that Lapis herself remembered, in such an urgent moment.

The fact that she had succeeded in spatial transfer by pinpointing the sky above the Far East Branch island itself was proof of how intelligent and strained Lapis was.

“After dealing with the captured Order’s followers, I’m thinking of making this place the location of the third lighthouse.”

“I thought so.”

The fact that Liza and other observers from the Western Continent had discovered this island in the first place was because the Far East Branch’s moving island was a powerful hidden realm in itself.

Since the condition of being a hidden realm was satisfied, it was also possible to transform this place from the Order’s temple into a lighthouse.

“The fact that you can move around the sea in all directions, away from the fixed coordinates of the land, is a great geographical advantage. Of course, it’s also beneficial from the perspective of constructing the lighthouse’s celestial magic.”

Grisha said, counting on her fingers.

“If we build the first lighthouse in the Autonomous Territory, the second lighthouse in the valley, and the third lighthouse on this island, and then adjust the positions between each lighthouse, Lapis’s power will become much stronger.”

“I see…”

“You’ve come a long way. Haven’t you?”

She turned to Lenok and smiled.

“It feels like just yesterday that we first met in the Autonomous Territory and were fighting each other.”

“Do shamans who have lived as long as you feel such emotions?”

“Long-lived species are all like that. We remember all the encounters and farewells we’ve accumulated while living.”

Her expression, filled with smoke, turned bitter.

“Because we rarely forget, we can live long. In a way, this is a curse placed on tribes like us.”

“……”

It was an interesting perspective.

Was it because forgetting itself was a blessing given to life, that Grisha’s tribe, which had little of it, had lived longer?

The fact that they had gained the power to live longer because they had not received the blessing of being forgotten was, in a way, similar to the law of Geass. [A reference to a concept of power and curse].

Grisha, who had briefly turned gloomy, took a deep puff of her pipe and smiled faintly.

“Well, that’s just how it is, and it’s not like I remember everything.”

Having lived for a long time, she was already used to shaking things off quickly.

Lenok thought so and silently stared at the darkening sea.

He still remembered his own appearance that he had faced through the mirror.

What the old gun lying carelessly at his feet and the incomprehensible phrase meant.

Without confirming that, it would be difficult to uncover the secrets about Lenok himself any further.

Even to avoid being shaken at the moment of facing any truth, Lenok had to prepare in advance from now on.

“We’re going to start working on building the third lighthouse in earnest from now on.”

Grisha turned her gaze, with the pipe in her mouth.

“Evan, what are you going to do?”

“…I’m willing to help, but I can’t stay long.”

Lenok said, quietly touching the inside of his coat.

Feeling the touch of the hard obsidian mask at his fingertips, Lenok quietly lowered his gaze.

“I still have things to do.”

The mid-term settlement of Pandemonium that the clown had mentioned. [A gathering of powerful individuals].

He had said that there would be a meeting where the members who had collected the relics of the old world would gather to settle the results of their operations.

The time that Hairea and Freya had told him was less than three days away.

It was time to walk into the den of demons once again.